Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a's Food and Garden Weblog

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This is another dish I prepared with my winter broad bean harvest. In this recipe, I have paired the plump, proteinaceous broad beans with delicious baby green brinjals. Green brinjals should be small, with firm texture and barely-there white seeds. Recognizing these qualities in green brinjals will make this a tasty, successful dish.

Take 10 small green brinjals. Wash and trim the ends off and cut lengthwise into thin slices. Add them to salted water to prevent the onset of bitterness. Shell broad beans from plump pods. We need a cup of broad beans (Chikkudu Vittanaalu or Papdi Lilva).Ginger-green chilli paste: Take 1×1 inch piece of fresh ginger. Peel the skin. Take it in a mortar or mixer. Add 4 green chillies and pinch of salt. Pound or grind to smooth paste.

Prepare the Kura:

Heat a tablespoon of peanut oil in a cast-iron pan over moderate heat. When the oil is hot, do the hing tadka: Add a pinch each – cumin, mustard seeds and hing (asafetida) and toast for couple of seconds.Add brinjal pieces and broad beans. Saute until two-thirds cooked, for about ten minutes. Stir in the ginger-green chilli paste, quarter teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste. Mix well and continue to cook for another five minutes. If desired, sprinkle a tablespoon of sesame powder or fresh grated coconut for some extra taste.Serve hot over rice or with chapati.

An authentic Andhra dish to be eaten with Sona Masuri rice or sorghum roti, this superb recipe came with high recommendation from Lakshmi chinnamma. She has been following my vegetable harvest updates and when she saw the fresh and familiar brinjals, she highly recommended I cook this recipe and I did. What a joy it was to rediscover the forgotten taste. Chinnamma, you are my muse, thank you.

Brinjal Cilantro (Vankaya Kottimera Kura)(for one or two meals for four to two)

Brinjal: Fill a bowl to half with water. Add a teaspoon of salt and mix.
Remove the ends and cut the brinjals lengthwise thinly and then crosswise to about one-inch length pieces. Drop the pieces into salted water. This old-Bharath technique is to prevent brinjal bitter-browning.

Cilantro: Take cilantro leaves, chillies and ginger in a mixer or mortar. Add a pinch of salt and blend them to coarse paste. (Or, if you prefer, skip this step and add the three ingredients as they are.)

Brinjal-Cilantro: Place a wide skillet on stove-top and heat. Add oil and when oil is hot, add and toast curry leaves, a pinch each – cumin and mustard seeds to fragrance. Add brinjal pieces. Sprinkle turmeric and salt. Cover the skillet partially and cook the brinjal pieces to soft on medium heat. Add the cilantro paste at the end. Stir-fry for few minutes until the home is filled with wonderful cilantro scent.

Henna plant is in bloom since July. I don’t remember ever noticing henna flowers at Nandyala, and I am surprised at the beauty and fragrance of henna’s pretty petite flowers.

*************WV Log for Day 11:

Morning:
2 pesarattu with coconut chutney
A glass of ragi ganji without sweetener

Noon:
A small cup of brinjal-papdi lilva curry (vankaya-anapaginjala kura)
A bowl of masoor dal rasam with cherry tomatoes
A small cup of homemade yogurt

Evening:
A cup of ginger tea without sweetener

Night:
A small cup of chickpea guggullu (Mangala Gouri Vratha Vayanam from a friend)
A small cup of brinjal-papdi lilva curry
A cup of masoor dal rasam with key lime pickle on the side
For dessert: A cup of apple with yogurt

Workout:
Decided to take a break from gym this week. Prepared saggubiyyam vadiyalu for sun-drying – morning
Pillow covers sewing project still going on – evening

Browse by Ingredients: Ingredients are listed in alphabetical order in category section on the sidebar of Mahanandi.

Browse by Date or Month: Recipe name appears by hovering the mouse on the calendar. Clicking on the dates in the calendar will take you to the recipe that is blogged on that day. Or click on the month in archives section and then on the date in calendar.

Browse by Title: Recipes are listed in types of meal, courses and cuisines on this page.

I started out as a burper and spitter (aren’t we all?), taste tester, picky eater, ruthless critiquer (1 to 12 years age), trained under my mother’s guidance to dish washer, prep cook, line cook, sous-chef (12 to 25 years) at home. I was a partner and assistant chef, immensely benefited from my other half’s culinary wisdom and wit (25 to 30 years). I am the chief home-chef and kitchen manager at this time.
My culinary experience is a process of progression and I will always be an eager student at Mother Annapoorna’s culinary school.

Recipe Inspiration:

The main portion, about 60 percent of the blogged recipes at Mahanandi listed below, are from my home – Nandyala in India.

The remaining 40 percent, inspired by my imagination and the time I spent visiting and browsing famiy, friends and fellow food bloggers real and virtual kitchens.

Index Layout

As a reader, cook, taster and enthusiast I fashioned the index page following the strict Indic culinary wisdom, on how we serve the meal in a traditional setting. This page is laid out in a way, that if you cook a recipe from each category, you would have sampled the complete “Morning to Night” meal experience of my home. The combinations and possibilities are endless. It’s very much possible to re-create the varied and myriad hues of Indian cooking – a different flavor and texture for each of its hundred thousand villages.

“Real Knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”, the old Sanskrit proverb says. I hope you find here some information and recipes which you recognise, and others which surprise and delight you enough to try them out. Enjoy!

A Daily Record: Articles, Recipes and Photos from My Home
(From March 26th, 2005 to December 30th, 2009)

Kura, Vepudu, Poriyal, or Thoran:
(Indian Salads With Minimum Saute)Cooking cut-up vegetables briskly in a small amount of oil, stir-frying or sauteing is the most popular tenchnique that I use in my cooking. The resulting dish is called “Kura” or “Vepudu” in Telugu.